REPOST: Protecting Your Basement Goods When There's Wet Weather

Given the recent weather, this information is very relevant at the moment and we thought it deserved another post on the blog. We hope your homes and basements survived Sandy without any damage, but it also never hurts to be well prepared!

Below is a really helpful article on protecting the goods you keep in your basement by Intelligent Labor and Moving's owner, Ezekiel, that originally appeared in a real estate newsletter. 

photo courtesy of http://www.inspectapedia.com/interiors/Basement_Water.htm

Water in your basement can be a real disaster, particularly if like most people, your basement is disorganized and full of stuff. Here are some tips for organizing your basement to minimize the damage, and even with the absence of moisture, make your basement a friendlier and more useful place.

Elevate. Get everything off the floor. Wood, cardboard and chipboard all wick water upwards when they get wet, so even if just the bottom of something gets damp, it's likely to ruin the rest of it. Shipping pallets are a great and economical way to do this. They are commonly available for free or cheap. Try the want-advertiser, craigslist, or just look behind commercial buildings for a bunch leaned up by a dumpster. Stacking goods on these keeps them about 3 inches off the floor. Also, with a flash-light, you'll be able to check for water without having to move anything. Also, leave a 2 inch gap between items and exterior walls (they give off moisture).

Organize. Get some folding tables, use these to get important items far off the floor and as a place to do some organizing. With a good work surface you'll be able to go through all those boxes of stuff, organize it, and re-box anything you want to keep. Having a spot you can sanely go through things makes the task much easier, and therefore more likely to happen.

Sweep. The difference between having a basement with a layer of mud, and a basement with a little water in it is the dust that accumulates in your basement. Sweeping in a dusty basement of course causes a terrible dust cloud which settles on everything and ends up in your lungs, but there's a solution. Get some sweeping compound, it's readily available from a number of online sources. You spread it around where you'll be sweeping. It prevents dust from becoming airborne, and pulls dust out of porous surfaces (cement, tarmac, brick). It's also useful for soaking up oils and other spills so they can be swept.

Stretch-wrap. This an industrial saran-wrap that movers use to keep soft goods clean. You can use it to wrap furniture in your basement to provide a clear-plastic barrier against drips, and also to keep dust and mildew off your stuff. Available on-line or places that sell packing material. Get the 18"-20" variety for covering furniture.


Even with dry weather, though, following these steps will make your basement a much easier place to store and find your goods with a minimum amount of hassle.

What is Stretch Wrap?

image courtesy of mcmahonpaperandpackaging.com

If you've ever received an estimate from us before you've seen that we include something called stretch wrap. Stretch wrap is an industrial strength saran wrap that we use to protect your goods during the move. Our movers use it to wrap soft goods like mattresses and couches to keep them clean during transport. Also, the movers use it to adhere moving blankets to your hard furniture like dressers and tables.

We use stretch wrap instead of other materials for a few reasons. We find it works better than tape for adhering moving blankets because there is no sticky residue that might damage your furniture. Also, we find that our movers like it better than mattress bags and other specialty bags because its easier to grip and it fits around the item perfectly, whereas the bags are often loose and slippery. Stretch wrap protects against rain and snow just like a bag would, but because of its grip, the movers like it better in wet weather.

We also have two different sizes of stretch, so we're really able to tailor our approach to your particular goods. And, while the stretch wrap can't be reused, it can be recycled through the City of Cambridge, which we really like.

Overall we feel stretch wrap is the right material for the jobs. If you have any questions about it please ask away!

Protecting your basement goods when there's wet weather

Below is a really helpful article on protecting the goods you keep in your basement by Intelligent Labor and Moving's owner, Ezekiel, that originally appeared in a real estate newsletter. 

photo courtesy of http://www.inspectapedia.com/interiors/Basement_Water.htm

Water in your basement can be a real disaster, particularly if like most people, your basement is disorganized and full of stuff. Here are some tips for organizing your basement to minimize the damage, and even with the absence of moisture, make your basement a friendlier and more useful place.

Elevate. Get everything off the floor. Wood, cardboard and chipboard all wick water upwards when they get wet, so even if just the bottom of something gets damp, it's likely to ruin the rest of it. Shipping pallets are a great and economical way to do this. They are commonly available for free or cheap. Try the want-advertiser, craigslist, or just look behind commercial buildings for a bunch leaned up by a dumpster. Stacking goods on these keeps them about 3 inches off the floor. Also, with a flash-light, you'll be able to check for water without having to move anything. Also, leave a 2 inch gap between items and exterior walls (they give off moisture).

Organize. Get some folding tables, use these to get important items far off the floor and as a place to do some organizing. With a good work surface you'll be able to go through all those boxes of stuff, organize it, and re-box anything you want to keep. Having a spot you can sanely go through things makes the task much easier, and therefore more likely to happen.

Sweep. The difference between having a basement with a layer of mud, and a basement with a little water in it is the dust that accumulates in your basement. Sweeping in a dusty basement of course causes a terrible dust cloud which settles on everything and ends up in your lungs, but there's a solution. Get some sweeping compound, it's readily available from a number of online sources. You spread it around where you'll be sweeping. It prevents dust from becoming airborne, and pulls dust out of porous surfaces (cement, tarmac, brick). It's also useful for soaking up oils and other spills so they can be swept.

Stretch-wrap. This an industrial saran-wrap that movers use to keep soft goods clean. You can use it to wrap furniture in your basement to provide a clear-plastic barrier against drips, and also to keep dust and mildew off your stuff. Available on-line or places that sell packing material. Get the 18"-20" variety for covering furniture.


These tips are particularly pertinent considering the downpour happening as I type. Even with dry weather, though, following these steps will make your basement a much easier place to store and find your goods with a minimum amount of hassle.

Digging out.

Do you feel like we're getting more snow this winter than we have in years? It feels like when I was a kid and we would get at least three or four snow days every winter. I loved that. As long as we stayed within that happy grey area that didn't mean more days tacked onto the end of the year because that was no fun.

Anyway, we've been doing a lot of digging out since that first snow storm. We purchased a snow blower last year to help out on jobs. Moving in snow is a tough job, so having the snow blower around to carve out parking spaces for our trucks and clear out sidewalks and walkways for our guys is a huge help. Of course, we always keep shovels on our trucks, too, just in case. Sometimes they're actually better for the job at hand than a snow blower. We've also got these rubber mats like the ones used at restaurants on slippery kitchen floors or behind the bar. We put these on the ground and/or on the lift gates and ramps our our trucks so the guys don't have to walk on wet, slick surfaces. Its made a real difference.

So, what do we do if for you if its snows on the day we're moving you? There's a couple of different ways we can go about it. One is that we can change the date of your move. That snow storm we had last week that dumped over a foot of snow on the area? We'd probably want to switch the date of your move (and I assume you would, too). Weather like that isn't very safe for driving or moving and can actually make your final bill at lot larger because everything takes longer in a blizzard. If the snow isn't that bad or its the day after a storm (so there's lots of piles of snow everywhere) we'll definitely be able to work around that unless you'd still like to switch days. As I said, there's snow shovels on every truck and the snow blower can be called in if we need it. Often, though, its not that hard to work around once its no longer actively falling. Besides the rubber mats we use for safety we can also put down some of our moving blankets in your house to keep the floor clean and dry while we trek back and forth between the truck and your house.

Of course, you can always call or e-mail us to ask specific questions about a snowy move or anything else moving related. We're at 617.864.0620 or help@intelligentlabor.com.